A Poem At the Break of War

Written  on March, 19, 2003 as the first bombs drop on Iraq this century.  

By Emma Rosenthal

i can kill the mirror of my own likeness if i do not recognize myself

i can kill you if i do not know that killing you is killing you

i can kill you if i believe you kill me

i can kill you if i have been shattered

i can kill you if i love the sound of shattered glass

i can kill you if i want your death more than i want my life

i can kill you if i think the general is part of me

i can kill you if i love the flag more than the blood that soaks it

i can kill you if  red hands walk down cat walk runways

i can kill you for greed

i can kill you for fashion

i can kill you for land

i can kill you if i have no memory

i can kill you if memory tells me to

i can kill you if i abhor the womb

i can kill you if i despise the breast

i can kill you if the phallus is a weapon

i can kill  you if your children scare me and i wage a war against youth

i can kill you if i hate music

i can kill you if that song keeps playing in my head

i can kill you if the general sings lullabies to me while i sleep

while the general wages war against me

i can kill you if i believe the war is waged for me

i can kill you for privilege

i can kill you for expedience

 i can kill you for luxury

i can kill you if i forget that killing you is killing me

i cannot kill you for truth or hope

i cannot kill you if i know who i see in the mirror

i cannot kill you if i love the womb

i cannot kill you if milk issues from my breasts

i cannot kill you if i know the phallus brings the possibility of life

through the tightness of connection

i cannot kill you if i love windy days on open cliffs

i cannot kill you if the songs of birds wake me before the generals lull me to sleep

i cannot kill you if my skin wakes up electric

i cannot kill you if i have been taught to think

i cannot kill you if i see you when i look in the mirror

i cannot kill you if your name dances in my mind

i cannot kill you if i dance naked in the rain

i cannot kill you if i see you naked and i love your wounds

i cannot kill you if the tides tell the time and the moon lights the night

i cannot kill you if i live on this rock in space and i know we live together

i cannot kill you if our words touch

i cannot kill you if i know you bleed

i cannot kill you if i hear your voice

i cannot kill you if i hear your prayers and chant them with you

i cannot kill you if i know your innocence

i cannot kill you if i see your children resting in your arms

i cannot kill you if i love the general and call him home

i cannot kill you if there is a river in my heart